Michael Chammas

Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson conceded Manly were the better football team on Friday night, but believes his side missed an opportunity to snatch a late victory at Brookvale Oval.

Robinson was disappointed with his side's execution, adamant the Roosters were presented with enough chances to leave Manly with the two competition points.

"We certainly had enough chances in that second half," Robinson said.

"I thought it was a good opening period to the second half. We created enough field position, but it was poor execution on quite a lot of the sets we had on their line. We turned over a lot of ball and we weren't getting to the end of our sets well enough.

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"I think we were 56 per cent in the second half. You don't go from 12-all at half time then win a game from there with that execution. We were just a bit rushed with it. We thought a play would be enough but you have to work harder against Manly to score tries and we just weren't patient enough."

Brett Stewart was arguably Manly's best, scoring a try and setting up another in a dominant second half performance.

While Manly coach Geoff Toovey was pleased with his No.1, he was more delighted with the defensive effort of his big men limiting the best attacking team in the competition to just three tries.

"It was gutsy, it was tough," Toovey said.

"They're a big physical side. It was a tough win. After half-time we made an error off the kick off, and they were camped down our end for probably 10 minutes. I thought it was really taxing on us to keep them at bay and a very resilient effort from the forwards in particular to keep the Roosters at bay.”

"I thought Brett was particularly good today, but in saying that, I thought we really worked hard for each other and I think they showed that again."

Roosters five-eighth James Maloney missed a conversion attempt to lock the scores up at 18-all with 10 minutes remaining.

Robinson said the failed attempt changed the dynamics of the final 10 minutes, but refused to blame his playmaker for the loss.

"There's a different feel if he kicks that and people start thinking about do we go for tries or field goals and there's pressure on every set," Robinson said.

"But the pressure was on us there. Jimmy's kicked pressure goal after pressure goal for us. We had a good opportunity there from 18-16 but we just couldn't build enough pressure. They played well Manly and deserved to win."

Boyd Cordner made his return after a six week layoff with an ankle injury, scoring a try off his second touch of the night.

He's in the mix to replace the suspended Anthony Watmough in the NSW team for game three and Robinson believes he hasn't missed a beat.

"I thought after the layoff he got back in and showed great execution [for the try]," Robinson said.

"He worked really hard and had a strong game tonight. I think it was 55 minutes and he worked really hard tonight. I thought he did well for someone ... sometimes when you have got shoulder injuries you can run. But not being able to run when you've got an ankle injury, so credit to the staff and him to get back like that."

Manly's third try of the night was a well-executed play between Matt Ballin, Kieran Foran and Stewart.

While the players were pumped about the success of the set play, Toovey admits the coaching staff would be taking credit for what was one of the most well-crafted tries of the season.

"It's very pleasing when the players who work for things during the week, they come off," Toovey said.

"I think they were particularly pleased with themselves. They'll all claim it but the coaches will claim it as well."

1 comment so far

don't think Jimmy Maloney was into the game last night as Brad Fittler pointed out!! Everyone's entitled to an off day..at least we know he has an on switch..